Best time to purchase?

FI and I have started looking for a house and is ready to purchase, but I remember seeing a television special that during the winter time is the best time to purchase?

Has anyone heard of this? I grew up in Garden City and as much as I love the area, we can't afford it now. What are some nice towns for a first home?

TIA!

Re: Best time to purchase?

If you had to pick... winter is always the best time to purchase.

Re: Best time to purchase?

when you have enough money saved for a decent DP, you find a house you LOVE and have an accepted offer.

sorry to be so vague but in this market, IMO there really is no good or bad time to buy.

Re: Best time to purchase?

I heard from one RE agent that End of summer is best followed by Fall or Winter.

End of summer more-so because many people put their home up for sale in the spring and summer. That is becuase if they have kids, they want to get them situated and signed up for school & all ready for September so the kids aren't changing schools in the middle of the year.
So if someone can't sell their house in the spring and summer, by the end of the summer they get a bit desperate to sell, so they'll be willing to drop the price.

This is just from one RE agent, so I'm not sure how much truth it holds... but it makes some sense.

(we bought our house in the dead of winter and got a great deal)

Re: Best time to purchase?

It's impossible to guess. In the spring and summer, you may have more buyers to compete with but there's also usually a ton more inventory. In the winter, there may be fewer buyers looking, but there are also much fewer homes for sale. We looked during the winter and bought in March, but had to deal with bidding wars and such because there was just nothing on the market at the time.

Re: Best time to purchase?

i heard for taxes reasons..the beginning of the year, jan - mar

Re: Best time to purchase?

I've heard in the winter because there are less people looking and the people just want to sell. We found our house in the winter (snow storn) and we just closed Friday. It was great because it wasn't hot or too cold when we moved in.

The drawback of looking in the winter, not many houses are on the market.

Re: Best time to purchase?

thanks for the reply everyone!
FI and I have enough for 20% DP for our price range, we just haven't find 'THE HOUSE' yet.. well keep on looking!

If we can get a better deal during the winter months, we won't mind waiting, but just wanted to check and see if this is the case